LCV Hits Gardner With $1 Million Ad Campaign

“The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) is an extreme anti-fracking group that works every day to attack Colorado’s energy economy and calls Senator Udall one of their ‘staunchest allies in the U.S. Senate.’ While Senator Udall says he is a ‘champion of natural gas,’ the LCV has called this resource ‘dirty energy,’ said Alex Siciliano, Gardner’s spokesman. “If Senator Udall and the LCV had their way, Colorado would lose tens of thousands of jobs, and working families across the state would see huge increases in their energy bills. The LCV and Mark Udall are out of touch with Colorado’s economy and energy resources.”

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From a League of Conservation Voters release today, a big media buy hitting GOP U.S. Senate candidate Cory Gardner on his environmental record:

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) today announced that they’ve added Congressman Cory Gardner to their Dirty Dozen program and kicked off a $1 million television ad campaign highlighting his Big Oil ties. The first ad, “Wrong Way,” reminds Colorado voters that Gardner has taken more than $450,000 in contributions from the oil and gas industry while repeatedly voting to protect their tax breaks, subsidies and giveaways. It begins airing this week in the Denver media market.

“It’s no surprise that corporate polluters are already trying to buy climate change denier Cory Gardner a Senate seat in November. Cory Gardner has repeatedly helped Big Oil avoid paying their fair share while taking contributions from them hand over fist,” said Gene Karpinski, President of the League of Conservation Voters.

“Cory Gardner’s extreme agenda may work for his special interest allies, but it’s the wrong path for Colorado. With Cory Gardner, Big Oil wins and Colorado families lose,” said Pete Maysmith, Executive Director of Conservation Colorado.

The ad highlights that Gardner has repeatedly sided with Big Oil by voting against eliminating billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies to the nation’s most profitable oil companies. Gardner also voted for the extreme fiscal year 2012 Ryan budget, which would retain $40 billion in oil subsidies, and even signed a pledge that would protect billions in Big Oil subsidies. Gardner’s votes have come at a time of record profits for the oil and gas industry. Documentation for the ad can be found here.

"If Senator Udall and LCV had their way, Colorado would lose tens of thousands of jobs, and working families across the state would see huge increases in their energy bills. The LCV and Mark Udall are out of touch with Colorado's economy and energy resources."

It might be useful for the Congressman that he is no longer vying to represent just a small slice of Colorado, but the entire state. His statements are patently false, and he knows it. In fact, Xcel's "ECA" (Fuel Cost) Rates Went Up 4.4% (Residential) and 7.85% (Large Industrials) on April 1. In case the Congressman is interested, Xcel serves the majority of Colroado's energy consumers. He should also take note that the increases aren't coming from increasing costs of their renewable resources – it is coming from the increase in natural gas prices. It appears the day of 'cheap natural gas' is behind us.

The double-digit, annual wholesale electricity rate increases the rural electrics have suffered from Tri-State over the past decade have happened because of increasing coal costs – and zero to do with renewable energy. Ditto for the coal costs Xcel is experiencing right now.

If the Congressman wants to grow our state economy with long-lasting, sustainable jobs – he'd serve himself well to grasp the concept of this energy transition. Wind is the lowest-cost energy in the entire system today; it's bringing jobs to the urban Front Range and much-needed tax base to Colorado's outback. There is no other congressional district one would point to nationally that better demonstrates the successes of wind development than in CD4. But one wouldn't know that if all you relied on was the spin machine out of the Congressman's press office. And of course, that production wouldn't have happened without a state mandate – something the Congressman was a solid opponent of while a state Representative.

If we want to create tens of thousands of new jobs, it won't be on the back of a drilling rig; it won't be extracting prehistoric fuel from the Earth's crust.

As Upton Sinclair said, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”